Alternate Blockbuster Customer Service Email Address

This is probably very temporary, but if you are having problems on your Blockbuster account, you might try reporting the problems to Blockbuster at bbsurvey@blockbuster.cust-serv.com. This might not do anything for you, but you might possibly get some results. At this point, any sort of result is probably better than the responses you have been getting from Blockbuster during the last couple of weeks.

Blockbuster Contact Information

If you need to contact Blockbuster there is very little use in contacting them via email. You will have to wait hours or days for answers, and the answers you get will often be copied and pasted nonsense that will rarely be helpful. It is not unusual to have to send emails back and forth two, three, or four times to get an issue resolved. The only way to get real action from Blockbuster is to call them directly on the phone.

Blockbuster Online (Blockbuster By Mail or Online Purchases)
(866) 692-2789

Blockbuster Store Issues
(800) 406-6843

Account Cancellation Hotline
(866) 574-3888

Blockbuster Tries to Confuse and Distract Complaining Customers

If you email Blockbuster with a legitimate question about unexplained delays on your account, there is a very good chance a customer service representative will attempt to confuse or distract you with irrelevant information while completely failing to address your question.

You may have a simple question about why Blockbuster has not shipped any DVDs to you even though you have had three empty slots in your queue for two days. Blockbuster will probably not address your question. Instead, they will try to bombard you with extraneous details about your account. Perhaps they will hope you will think they have sufficiently answered your question even though they ignored it.

Try this out by contacting customer service (http://www.blockbuster.com/help). Ask them a simple question in an email like:

Dear Blockbuster:

I have had empty slots in my queue for days. Why has Blockbuster not shipped any DVDs to me all week?

Than You,
Joe Customer


Most likely, Blockbuster's response will be something like this:


Dear Joe (Sucker),

You returned DVD A on __/__/____, DVD B on __/__/____, and DVD C on __/__/____. We shipped DVD X to you on __/__/____.

We will ship you the next available title in your queue within 1-2 business days, provided you have enough "Available" titles at the top of your queue.

As a reminder, always keep 15 available titles at the top of your queue to ensure prompt service.

Thank You,
Blockbuster Customer (We Don't) Care

Notice that Blockbuster used data from your account to give the illusion that someone actually investigated your issue; however, Blockbuster did not actually address your question or provide any useful information. They simply just mixed some easily obtained facts with boilerplate text to fake an answer to your question.

Do not be fooled by these confusion tactics. When Blockbuster does this to you, hit the reply button and tell them they did not address your question. While you are waiting two to eight hours for a response to your email, consider picking up the phone and calling Blockbuster toll-free at (866) 692-2789. Maybe the Blockbuster employee on the phone will not be as bold about evading your questions. The important thing is to make Blockbuster explain why they are screwing you. If a company is cheating you, they should at least be forced to come up with some sort of a direct explanation, even if that explanation is a total lie.

Time for Some Toll-Free Complaining - (866) 692-2789

Blockbuster Online’s service is getting horrible. Unfortunately, there is not much you can do about it. You can just cancel your subscription or stick it out and try to make your subscription work.

If you are going to try to hang in with Blockbuster, you will need to become very proactive to make certain Blockbuster does not take advantage of you by charging your credit card for subscription fees while failing to ship DVDs to you. Of course, you need to keep track of all of your business with Blockbuster, but you are also going to have to stand up for yourself and the subscription benefits for which you are paying. The easiest way for you to make sure Blockbuster hears you is to pick up the phone and give Customer Service a call at (866) 692-2789.

A phone call appears to be just about the only way a customer can get results from Blockbuster. The email-based support system is insanely deficient. The vast majority of the customer service representatives responding to email inquiries are incompetent, slow, apathetic, and clueless. If you attempt to resolve a problem through email, you will almost definitely be led around in circles until you give up or happen to get lucky and find someone who cares. Regardless, the email-based support system is abysmal, and you should not expect to get your problems resolved through that outlet.

The customer service representatives working the phones at Blockbuster appear to be far more competent than their cyberspace counterparts. Each and every time you have a problem with your account (shipping delays, poor title availability, etc.), you might want to consider just picking up the phone and getting the problem resolved. Making the phone call is a pain, but it often works. Besides, toll-free phone support is expensive for Blockbuster. Every time you call, you cost Blockbuster money in tolls, time, resources, etc. If customer support begins to get costly for Blockbuster, the company may decide to improve their service to avoid all of the expensive phone calls. (Of course, Blockbuster could also just further reduce benefits and/or raise their rates, but they are already doing that every chance they get anyway.)

Sadly, there is not much you can do about this decline in Blockbuster’s service. If you are not going to cancel your Blockbuster subscription, you are just going to have to heat up the phone lines and fight for yourself. Good luck.

Preparing for a Blockbuster Lawsuit

With Blockbuster raising prices, cutting back on subscriber benefits, expanding shipping times, etc., customers are bound to become outraged at some point. Hundreds of thousands of outraged customers are going to create a hostile consumer environment, which is almost certainly going to lead to lawsuits against Blockbuster.

If you do not trust Blockbuster to deliver the unlimited DVD rental service for which you are paying, you will want to prepare for the possibility that you, one day, will be furious with Blockbuster and want some justice. A little bit of effort on your part now will help you build your case against Blockbuster should you need to take action in the future.

The most important thing you can do to build your case against Blockbuster is to keep track of each Blockbuster DVD you receive. As Blockbuster sends each DVD, make a note of the title, the date Blockbuster shipped it, the date you received it, the date you returned it, the date Blockbuster acknowledged receipt, and the date Blockbuster shipped the next title. You can record this information on paper or digitally. The easiest way to record this data is in a spreadsheet.

Recording all of this Blockbuster shipping data may seem like overkill, but if you think there is even a remote chance you may want to sue Blockbuster, participate in a class action lawsuit, or have Blockbuster investigated for fraud, this data will be very useful to the attorney or investigators. If you do not have this data available, the only source for the data will be Blockbuster. They, of course, will be reluctant to provide it and may not do so without a subpoena. If you record the data yourself, you will have it readily available, and it can eventually be used to crosscheck and verify the accuracy of whatever data Blockbuster releases.

Also, keep track of all of your communication with Blockbuster. Keep copies of every letter, email, etc. If you call Blockbuster, make a quick note about when you called and what was discussed. This information will be valuable later when you need to establish you have been a responsible, concerned, and proactive consumer.

Lastly, log in to your Blockbuster account and copy your entire rental history. It is important you do this as soon as possible, because Blockbuster controls this information and has the power to remove it at any moment.

To copy your rental history, follow the steps below.

1. Click on My Account on Blockbuster.com.
2. Verify your login information.
3. On the My Account page, click on View Rental History.
4. The My Rental History page will appear.
5. With your mouse, highlight all of the titles and dates. (Note: Speed up the process by setting the Results Per Page to 100.)
6. Copy the data by pressing [Ctrl + C] on your keyboard.
7. Paste the data into a document or spreadsheet by opening the desired application and pressing [Ctrl + V].
8. Make sure to save the data.
   

This easy process will take only a few minutes. If Blockbuster ever does anything shady and despicable like concealing your subscriber data, you will already have it.

In summary, you can protect yourself as a consumer by taking a few simple actions. By tracking your rentals, recording your correspondence, and copying your account history, you can build an arsenal of information, which will become useful if you should ever need to sue Blockbuster or have them investigated by a government agency.